Circuit-Modeled Dynamics, Plus One Free Plug-in, From FXpansion

Quietly, FXpansion have been making some well-loved, circuit-modeling instruments in the DCAM series. They may not be a household name, but just ask around artists – producers I know consistently bring up the DCAM name and just talk about it sounding damned good.

Now, DCAM turns to processing and not just synths. DCAM Dynamics is a suite of plug-ins, each based on models of analog circuitry. There’s a good range of stuff here, covering the gamut from fine-tune adjustments to more creative applications, and I’m eager to try them. Best of all, the freebie here isn’t just a cut-down throwaway, but a powerful-looking offering on its own – enough to give you a good taste, for your VST, AU, or RTAS host.

Word must have gotten out, too, as when I tried to write this up yesterday morning, the FXpansion server was hosed. (Happens to the best of us.) Now that’s up and running, so let’s see if they stand up to getting CDM’ed.

What’s on offer:

DCAM FreeComp A console bus compressor, so the sort of thing you’d expect on a conventional console for working with groups or mixes, FreeComp could also be applied to individual tracks for, as the developers put it, “creative sculpting and heavy, pumping compression effects.”

BusComp Here you get another bus compressor option with similar versatility, “from the centre section of a well-known British large-format mixing console.”

ChanComp is a limiting amplifier, so your go-to channel compressor with a “very fast attack response.”

CrossComp (seen at top) starts with a bus compressor, but adds frequency controls. It’s a nice idea here: dial in frequencies, but without too much complexity – multi-band compression for the rest of us, based on what you most often actually use.

EnvShaper lets you adjust “attack and sustain portions of transients” – just the kind of envelope following / shaping that can be fun for creative use.

And you get lots of common features across the suite, so getting comfortable with the full set can be rewarding:

Common menus and presets.

Built-in MIDI learn.

Saturation circuitry modeling.

High-quality oversampling.

Secondary side-chain input (host-dependent).

Full MIDI control (host-dependent).

64-bit and 32-bit processing support. (There you go – those of you who just got in on the Ableton beta, here’s something to try.)

Hm. I was just thinking yesterday that I wonder what interesting compressor softwares there are in addition to AD’s Rough Rider. Nice timing Peter.

Brian

Hm. I was just thinking yesterday that I wonder what interesting compressor softwares there are in addition to AD’s Rough Rider. Nice timing Peter.

Random Chance

The real question again is: How does it work? Or more precisely: If this were a work of science and not a purely commercial product, what would the list of citations look like? Everybody stands on the shoulder of giants (or at least does not invent all of physics, electronics, math, and DSP themselves), consequently I would love for DSP companies to pick up the habits of naming their sources so long as these sources are in the public domain. Or do it like Native Instruments. Let your developers publish stuff they know, even if it is not original.

Random Chance

The real question again is: How does it work? Or more precisely: If this were a work of science and not a purely commercial product, what would the list of citations look like? Everybody stands on the shoulder of giants (or at least does not invent all of physics, electronics, math, and DSP themselves), consequently I would love for DSP companies to pick up the habits of naming their sources so long as these sources are in the public domain. Or do it like Native Instruments. Let your developers publish stuff they know, even if it is not original.

CDM is an online magazine for creative technology, from music and DJing to motion and more.